Improved steam-boiler furnace



UNITED STATES PATENT THOMAS CHAMPION, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OFCOLUMBIA.

IMPROVED STEAM-BOILER FURNACE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 13,146, dated June 26,1855.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS CHAMPION, of the city and county ofWashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in the Arrangement of Steam-Boilers and TheirFurnaces for Facilitating the Burning of the Ordinary Waste Steam andGases; andI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a horizontal section through theboiler. Fig. 2 represents a top plan with a portion of one of the shellsbroken away. Fig. 3 represents an elevation, partially in section, ofthat end of the boiler nearest to the fire-box or furnace. Fig. 4represents a top view of the fire-box; and Fig. 5 represents a sideelevation,in section, with a portion of the chimney or stack brokenaway.

Similar letters where they occur in the several figures denote likeparts.

My invention relates to that class of steamboilers and furnaces whereinthe steam and products of combustion are returned tothefurnace to beburned or to aid in the combustion of the fuel; and it consists in thearrangement of devices by which the escape-steam is caused to carry backwith it the gases or heated products of combustion to the fire again andagain until they are consumed, thus economizing fuel.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe the same with reference to the drawwas.

The boiler may be constructed in any of the usual well-known forms ofhorizontal or upright boilers, and may be set in brick-Work or inclosedin a metallic case. At or near that end of the boiler where the furnaceis located I place a drying-pipe A, into which the escapesteam from theengine is conveyed, and where it is dried preparatory to its beingcarried back into the fire. This pipe A is furnished with as many branchpipes B as there are flues or sets of fines in the boiler or of boilers.These branchpipes B lead into the fines G, Where they deliver up theirsteam, mingling it with the gas escaping from the furnace, and the forceof the steam carrying the gases thus commingled through the fines backunderneath the grate-bars and into the fire to be consumed entirely, orso much thereof as the combustion will take up, the balance, if any,passing around again and again by the circulation caused by the steam.

To aid the combustion or supply theheated products with atmospheric air,I place in the stack an inverted-conical-shaped pipe D, which passesdown to the space underneath the fire, where it unites with a transversepipe Ein the front part of the ash-pit, said pipe E being provided witha series of apertures or openings, through which the air taken in at D,and which becomes rarefied in passing through D,is escaped into the fireto aid combustion.

The fire-box is composed of acoiled pipe .I, through which water is fedinto the boiler, and which pipe, after leaving the fire-box, is conveyedback through the fire-space F, and at the rear of the boiler it branchesoff intoa series of tubes F as many as there are flues,

and return through the fiues O, and thence into the upper part of theboiler G,Where they are perforated to discharge the water into theboiler, all of which is distinctly seen in Fig. 5.

The stack or chimney H is furnished with a damper I, and the severalpipes are furnished with stop-cocks, blow-offs, 850., which areincidental to steam-boilers in general and need not be particularlydescribed.

WVhen the fire is started in the engine, the

smoke and gases escape through the lines andinto the stack or chimney inthe ordinary way; but when the fires are up and the engine under Way thedamper I and the furnace and draft doors are closed. The steam from theengine is then let into the pipe A, and through its branches into theflues O, where it mingles with and drives the smoke and other gases backinto the fire to be consumed, and thus it continues to furnish a forceddraft through and through the flues and back into the fire, thenecessary atmospheric air being furnished in streams through the pipes DE to keep up regular combustion.

The steam in my arrangement acts as an artificial blower to the fire;but, instead of blowing atmospheric air to the fire, it carries backwith itself all the heated products of combustion to be burned up in thefire-chamber. I thus have more than the ordinary benefit of a blower,while I save its expense in wear and tear.

The pipes F, instead of returning through the flues and entering theboiler at the front, may be carried into the boilers at their rear,their main oflice being to supply the boiler with water; and, instead ofcarrying the gases into the fire through the ash-pit or space below thefire, I can divide them, taking a portion in below and a portion in atthe top or over the fire, and in some formsof boilers all the gases maybe carried in over the fire.

I am aware that it has been attempted to keep up a circulation in asteam-boiler furnace with a closed stack by means of a fanblower; butthis requires power to drive the fan and is otherwise expensive. I causethe steam itself, which becomes one of the auxiliary products ofcombustion, to carry with it, by the force of its own volume, all theheated products back into the fire, producing an artificial circulationin a furnace Wit-11 a closed stack and draft-holes,and serving everypurpose of a fan-blower without anyof its objections.

There are many of the details of my general arrangement, which are notspeciallyreferred to; but, as they are shown in the drawings, it is notdeemed necessary to allude to them further.

Having thus fully described the nature of my invention, What I claimtherein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Using the exhaust-steam in a closed stack as a blower to return theheated gases or pr0- ducts of combustion with which it commingles backthrough fiues or passages to the fire again and again to be reburned,substantially as described.

THOMAS. CHAMPION.

Vitnesses:

A. B. SToUGHToN, J. D. CLARK.

